Jill D. Janssen received her Bachelor of Science in nursing at Belmont University in 1998. She started her career at Vanderbilt as a hematology/oncology nurse in the Vanderbilt Bone Marrow Transplant Unit. After caring for patients frequently on clinical trials, she was provided an opportunity to pursue a research career.
She has continued her career at Vanderbilt for the past 18 years in the Vanderbilt Clinical Trials Center under the direction of Dr. Gordon Bernard. She has served within the Clinical Trials Center in various roles and has directed the Clinical Trials Center for the last 14 years. She has expanded the Clinical Trials Center over the years to meet with needs of investigators and manages a staff with over 153 cumulative years of experience. She has spent the last 14 years providing investigators with study management oversight, providing trained research personnel and offering insight into breaking barriers to research. Over the past 18 years, The Clinical Trials Center has supported trials in Pediatric: Cardiovascular Surgery, Neurology, Child Development, Cardiology, Gastroenterology, Rheumatology, Infectious Disease, Nephrology, Hematology/Oncology and Anesthesia and Critical Care; Adult: Pathology, Rheumatology, Cardiology, Radiology, Infectious Disease, Neurology, Hematology/Oncology, Urology, Pulmonary, OB/GYN, Clinical Pharmacology, Orthopedics, Ophthalmology, Dermatology, Endocrinology, Anesthesia, Neurosurgery, Vascular Surgery, General Surgery, Liver Transplant, Cardiovascular Surgery, Kidney Transplant, Psychiatry, the School of Nursing, The School of Engineering and Biomedical Informatics.
In 2016 she was provided an opportunity to expand Vanderbilt’s central research services to investigators by enfolding the Vanderbilt Clinical Trials Center into the Vanderbilt Coordinating Center. Currently she is tasked with supporting and directing the Vanderbilt Clinical Trials Center, The Clinical and Translational Research Navigator team (CTRN) and the Local Support Services (LSS) team.